Getting around

If you can afford it, I highly recommend renting a car and driving around the country.  It is hands down the best way to see Israel.  Israel is very small (about the size of New Jersey), and nothing is very far apart

(except for Eilat, at the southern tip of the country on the Red Sea).  Indeed, you could drive from the northernmost tip to Eilat in five to six hours, though  no one would ever do that since there are so many

wonderful places in between.  Most road signs are in English as well as Hebrew and Arabic, and it is fairly easy to get around, at least outside the cities.  By renting a car, you are not slave to bus schedules or someone

else’s idea of what you should see and when.  Also, because most of the terrorist attacks of the early 2000s were on the buses, some people feel safer in a car.  That said, at this point I would feel perfectly safe on a bus

– it’s been years since there has been a bus bombing (praise God!).  The bus service also is quite extensive, inexpensive, and good.  You can even put your luggage underneath in the cargo hold You should definitely rent a car before you leave; you will save money over waiting to rent once you arrive in Israel.  I recommend an Israeli company called Eldan for rental cars.  On my last two trips, they had by far the best rate, with a 20% discount for Internet bookings at www.eldan.co.il.  Eldan also has a hotel in Jerusalem next to the YMCA; you can book the hotel with the car as a package deal. Hertz, Avis,  Budget,  Sixt (Israeli)  and  Kemwell

(European) also offer rental cars in Israel.  You can at least initially check comparative prices using Orbitz at www.orbitz.com (though the best prices seem to be through booking directly on the particular company’s Israel web site).  I have used Avis in the past and was happy with it; see www.avis.co.il.  Budget is a newer player in Israel, and I used them in October 2006, getting a great rate at www.budget.co.il.  We have had a lot of complaints about Budget’s service on the Trip Advisor forum, though, and I had  a very bad customer-service experience of my own in 2006, so it’s not my first choice.  You should not need an international driver’s license as long as your license has the information in English.  If not, you will need to obtain the international

driver’s license, which basically translates the information into English.